Chapter 167: First Island

Chapter 167: First Island



"Have you gone senile? That has got to be the dumbest plan I have ever heard in my entire life." Sakazuki spoke harshly with a sneer to the man opposite him.

"I thought you'd understand after what you've lost to the pirates. I can pull it off, especially if you lend your strength to the cause, Sakazuki." Zed, formerly Admiral Zephyr, said looking a bit annoyed at his old student's criticism.

"I understand perfectly well and I have no doubt that it could be done. That isn't what I meant." Sakazuki clarified. "What I meant is that it won't work even if you succeed and the sacrifice of a whole sea worth of innocent lives will have been for nothing."

"How do you suppose that is?" Zed asked, half curious and half frustrated.

"Where should I even begin?" Sakazuki spoke condescendingly.

"Won't destroying the One Piece discourage new pirate groups from forming?" Zed asked.

"No. Most pirates either don't believe in One Piece, think that it's a mountain of gold, or have no delusions that they'll be the one to reach it. It was just the spark that inspired them, but that spark could have been anything." Sakazuki said.

"Surely killing off all the pirates in the New World will frighten them?! If nothing else, at least the Yonko will die!" Zed insisted.

"The Yonko won't die. Pirates these days are different from how they used to be. They're like cockroaches, you can't be certain they're dead unless you personally crush them beneath your boot." Sakazuki said.

Zed thought back to a few encounters his Neo Marines had with pirates. Somehow the pirates had slipped away from them for one reason or another just when they thought they were done for.

"What's happened to you, Zephyr? These tactics are something you never would have used in the past." Sakazuki interrupted his thoughts. His words might sound concerned, but his face showed no emotion.

"It's Zed." Zed spoke. "Why do you care? These things are right up your alley, aren't they?" "True, but if we're going to accomplish anything, you need to be at your best. I lost in that duel with that damned Aokiji because I allowed my rage to cloud my mind. My clouded mind weakened my will, which in turn led to my loss. After he cooled my head, I realized I needed a clear head to accomplish my goal. The same is true of you." Sakazuki explained.

"And what would you suggest then?" Zed said somewhat meekly.

Sakazuki leaned forward and stared into Zed's eyes through his sunglasses. Zed could see swirling magma deep within his pupils, like a volcano waiting for the right moment to erupt and rain death upon the world.

"It's simple. We'll still steal the Dyna Stones, we just won't use them to blow up the End Points. We'll turn them on the Yonko and on the Shichibukai. We'll crush those cockroaches beneath our boots and show their mangled corpses to the world! I'm sure that damned seagull bastard would love to take pictures for his newspaper." Sakazuki spoke darkly.

"Give me some time to think. It's not that easy to abandon years of planning." Zed said after a few moments of tense silence.

"Make your choice quickly, Sensei. The pirates won't kill themselves." Sakazuki said, before walking out of the room.

possibly even symbiotic.

There were also sloths with moss covered bodies that gazed at them in their slow fashion.

Soon enough they reached an area of the mushroom forest that opened up a bit, not a clearing but was clearly brighter than the rest.

The settlement only consisted of just a few hundred people. Many of them had quite a few warts, a common ailment for people living in very humid places.

Upon seeing their group, they glared at them with suspicion, but not with any great amount of fear as one would expect when seeing pirates.

"Excuse me. Do you know how long the log pose takes to set?" Robin asked a man who was tending to a garden of mushrooms.

"Two weeks. You'd best not stay in the village, though." The man warned. He was one of only

a few that didn't seem negatively inclined towards them.

"Why is that?" Robin inquired, thinking it best she do the talking for now to keep things

diplomatic.

The man looked about nervously and seemed satisfied that he hadn't found whatever or whomever he was checking for.

"There's been a string of mysterious deaths in the last few months. People are on edge. Many of them have become paranoid, seeing killers amongst their neighbors at the slightest provocations. It's tearing us apart from within and there are no leads as to the truth of the matter." The man explained, running his hand over his balding head.

The man shooed them away, not wanting to draw any suspicions upon himself for talking to

strangers.

"A murder mystery! We HAVE to solve it!" Perona's mood became much better with the addition of such a morbid topic.

"We'll be here for two weeks anyways, might as well. Not like anyone here can stop us if we

want to meddle." Cherry said.

"Perhaps the killer is the man we just spoke to? That's usually how the novels go, always the most unexpected culprit." Robin added, feeling interested herself.

Cabernet just hoped she'd get to beat someone up.